Black Knight: Record $4.4 Trillion in Mortgage Originations in 2021; Year Sees $1.2 Trillion in Cash-Out Refis as Homeowners Tap $275 Billion in Equity, a 16-Year High
Black Knight, Inc. (NYSE:BKI) announced a record-breaking $4.4 trillion in mortgage originations for 2021, contradicting initial predictions of a decline. The report highlights a significant shift towards equity-driven refinancing, with homeowners cashing out $1.2 trillion, marking a 20% growth in this area. Despite this, retention of cash-out refinance borrowers remains a challenge, with rates lower than traditional refinances. Rising home values have led to improved loan-to-value ratios, aiding in better risk profiles for these loans.
- Total mortgage originations reached a record $4.4 trillion in 2021.
- $1.2 trillion in cash-out refinances indicates a 20% growth.
- Homeowners withdrew $275 billion in equity, the highest in 16 years.
- Post-cash-out loan-to-value ratios improved, lowering overall risk.
- Cash-out refinance borrower retention remains challenging, 8 percentage points lower than traditional refinances.
- Retention rates for cash-out loans are lower, with borrowers switching lenders receiving only 5 basis points better rates.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla., March 7, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, the Data & Analytics division of Black Knight, Inc. (NYSE:BKI) released its latest Mortgage Monitor Report, based upon the company's industry-leading mortgage, real estate and public records datasets. This month's report looks into 2021's record-breaking
"Entering 2021, consensus opinion was that originations would likely come in 20
"Likewise, rising home values are resulting in much lower post-cash-out LTVs than we've seen in recent years – and more than 10 points lower than during the previous peak – while high average credit scores are also helping to lower the overall risk profile of these loans. We've been discussing this shift to an equity-centric market for some time, and our Optimal Blue rate lock data showed that cash-out activity continued to increase in January of this year as well. Now for the bad news: retention of cash-out refinance borrowers has been notoriously difficult. Even in a quarter that saw overall retention rates hit an eight-year high, cash-out retention was still 8 percentage points lower than for rate/term refis. Servicers continue to struggle with this segment, despite strong improvement."
Drilling in deeper to the latest retention data, the report finds that borrowers who changed lenders received interest rates just 5 basis points lower, on average, than those who were retained by their current lender/servicer – the smallest delta in 2.5 years. This suggests pricing – while certainly important – is not the only factor necessary to retain a current customer, particularly if they are looking to take equity out of their home. Lenders and servicers that create a positive customer experience see greater loyalty and retention. Indeed, servicers using Black Knight's cloud-native Servicing Digital customer engagement platform saw nearly
Retention metrics also highlight the need for data-driven marketing strategies and portfolio analysis, especially with rate/term refinance incentive cut by
About the Mortgage Monitor
The Data & Analytics division of Black Knight manages the nation's leading repository of loan-level residential mortgage data and performance information covering the majority of the overall market, including tens of millions of loans across the spectrum of credit products and more than 160 million historical records. The combined insight of the Black Knight HPI and Collateral Analytics' home price and real estate data provides one of the most complete, accurate and timely measures of home prices available, covering
Black Knight's research experts carefully analyze this data to produce a summary supplemented by dozens of charts and graphs that reflect trend and point-in-time observations for the monthly Mortgage Monitor Report. To review the full report, visit: https://www.blackknightinc.com/data-reports/
About Black Knight
Black Knight, Inc. (NYSE:BKI) is an award-winning software, data and analytics company that drives innovation in the mortgage lending and servicing and real estate industries, as well as the capital and secondary markets. Businesses leverage our robust, integrated solutions across the entire homeownership life cycle to help retain existing customers, gain new customers, mitigate risk and operate more effectively.
Our clients rely on our proven, comprehensive, scalable products and our unwavering commitment to delivering superior client support to achieve their strategic goals and better serving their customers. For more information on Black Knight, please visit www.blackknightinc.com/.
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SOURCE Black Knight, Inc.
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